Microsoft said the virus could spread through a flaw that was patched in a security update in March.

“We are continuing to investigate and will take appropriate action to protect customers,” Reuters quoted a company spokesman as saying.

Some 2,000 attacks were observed as of midday in New York on Tuesday, according to Kaspersky Lab.

Russia and Ukraine were most affected, with other victims spread across countries including Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United States, the security software maker said.

Security experts expect the impact to be smaller than the “WannaCry” attack last month, as many computers had been patched with Windows updates.

Still, the rapidly spreading cyber extortion campaign underscored growing threats from increasingly aggressive hackers, who have shown they are capable of shutting down critical infrastructure and crippling corporate and government networks, Reuters noted.

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